Certified Surgical Technologist (CST)
Salary

Median pay for Certified Surgical Technologists in the United States is around $18.29 per hour. Pay generally varies between $14.00 per hour and $25.25. The most influential factor affecting pay for this group is the particular firm, though geography and tenure have a (lesser) impact as well. The majority of workers are highly satisfied with their job. There are far more female Certified Surgical Technologists who answered the questionnaire than men, making up 81 percent. Although one-fifth lack health benefits of any kind, a strong majority do enjoy medical insurance, and the larger part get dental coverage, too. The numbers in this rundown were provided by PayScale's salary survey participants.

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

XTotal Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).

Common Career Paths for Certified Surgical Technologist (CST)

Plan your career path. Drag job titles to investigate a particular path and click on a link to see where particular career can lead.

While Certified Surgical Technologists do not often become Operating Room Registered Nurses, the job pays $62K per year on average. Many Certified Surgical Technologists advance into roles as Surgical Technologists or Surgical Technicians, but the median salaries are $2K lower and $3K lower, respectively.

Surgical Technologist Job Listings

Search for more jobs:

Popular Employer Salaries for Certified Surgical Technologist (CST)

Kaiser Permanente offers the largest salaries in town ($61K on average), but the considerable range in workers' salaries creates a rather varied pay scale that stretches from $32K to $89K.

Popular Skills for Certified Surgical Technologist (CST)

This chart shows the most popular skills for this job and what effect each skill has on pay.

Survey results imply that Certified Surgical Technologists deploy a deep pool of skills on the job. Most notably, skills in Open Heart, Pediatrics, Vascular, and Emergency/Trauma are correlated to pay that is above average, with boosts between 10 percent and 15 percent. Most people who know General Surgery also know Surgery and Operating Room / OR.

Pay by Experience Level for Certified Surgical Technologist (CST)

Median of all compensation (including tips, bonus, and overtime) by years of experience.

For Certified Surgical Technologists, level of experience appears to be a somewhat less important part of the salary calculation — more experience does not correlate to noticeably higher pay. Survey participants with less than five years' experience pocket $36K on average, but those with five to 10 years of experience enjoy a much bigger median of $41K. Certified Surgical Technologists who work for 10 to 20 years in their occupation tend to earn about $46K. More than 20 years of experience mean a somewhat bigger median paycheck of $50K, but it's not much more than what less experienced people make.

Pay Difference by Location

For those looking to make money, Certified Surgical Technologists in Los Angeles enjoy an exceptional pay rate, 33 percent above the national average. Certified Surgical Technologists can also look forward to large paychecks in cities like New York (+17 percent), Denver (+14 percent), Dallas (+14 percent), and Fort Worth (+10 percent). In Tulsa, salaries are 8 percent below the national average and represent the lowest-paying market. Indianapolis and Orlando are a couple other places where companies are known to pay below the median — salaries are 7 percent lower and 2 percent lower, respectively.